Archive for the ‘Video Clips’ Category

I’ve had the honor of being invited to make a presentation at three different TEDx events: TEDxMarin 2011, TEDxTransmedia in Rome 2012, and TEDxHollywood 2014. These three short talks present a sequence of perspectives on the way creative activists use media to foster social change.

The first talk is called “Reclaiming the Power of Personal Narrative.” It talks about the rise of social media, the trance of mass media, and the way that creative activists are using newly-democratized access to global media to foster positive social change in their communities all over the world. This talk focuses on some of the very talented activists who are sponsored by the Creative Visions Foundation in Malibu, California, where I have served as Chairman since 2010.

The second talk is called, “Seven Gifts for Creative Activists“. This presentation is a compact distillation of my own formula for collaboration among groups. After 25 years of working with disparate teams all over the world on the launch of TV shows and networks, games, web sites, and other startup ventures, I’ve developed a toolkit that helps give some structure to the creative process.

The third talk is called “From Observer to Activist: The Role of the Documentary Filmmaker in Surveillance Society“. This talk consists of a story in three parts: the rise of democratized media, especially video and film; the race between private companies and government agencies to control that data; and finally the evolving role of documentary filmmakers as storytellers who weave meaning and purpose into the tide of audience-generated video content. In this short speech, I summarize the arguments that I made during my opening presentation at the 2014 Sheffield Doc-Fest, a large film festival in England.

Enjoy these clips. I’d be very interested in your thoughts and comments.

In my previous post, I shared the first half of the transcript for my opening keynote speech about the future of television at the PrimeTime conference in Ottawa in March. Below you will find the text for the second half of the complete transcript for my speech. This section focuses on Facebook’s impact on social media, Google’s impressive collection of video properties, and it concludes with speculation about how the future media landscape will be controlled. The final section includes a quick survey of the amazing diversity of original video content on digital platforms. Enjoy.

Here’s the video of my recent speech at TEDxMarin. The theme of the event was “Communication Revolution”. The organizers invited me to speak about the future of television, social media and personal storytelling.

TED talks are all about passion and ideas. The ideas that get me most excited these days don’t come from big corporations or even startup ventures. They tend to come from individuals who are working outside of the context of business entirely. I decided to focus my comments on four activists who are using media to tell stories that literally change the world. I find these people very inspiring. They are some of the 85 Creative Activists sponsored by the Creative Visions Foundation, where I have been involved on a volunteer basis.

In November 2010, I was invited to participate as a speaker and moderator at the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma City. More than 2500 attendees, including hundreds of international delegates, attended the event. We participated in workshops, discussions, exhibitions, demonstrations.

I was the moderator of a discussion on the topic of Technology Aiding Creativity, and my guests were Pranav Mistry, the creator of Sixth Sense and other futuristic UIs, and Andrew Zolli, the impressario behind PopTech. Here’s the video of my opening remarks:

I chose to focus on three main points, to direct the audience’s attention to the way that technology can catalyze creative breakthroughs: giant scale, two-way dialog and the freedom of open platforms. The breathtaking pace of innovation on the web can be attributed to the fact that nobody needs to obtain permission from powerbrokers to gain access to scale, dialog and open platforms. That’s radically different from traditional mass media. And that’s why digital media grows so much faster than old media.

The advent of table computers and electronic book readers poses a serious challenge to the traditional business of book publishing. As I’ve written previously, it’s entirely possible that the economics of print publishing will crumble faster than commonly expected.

Recently I was invited to appear on “This Week In Books” to discuss the implications of electronic book publishing for authors, publishers and readers. There’s no doubt that this transition will present some difficult challenges, but our conversation was focused on the many new opportunities for authors to connect with their audiences via digital media. Printed books are great in many ways, and that’s why they’ve continued to occupy a central role in modern civilization in more or less unaltered form for 500 years. But now the Gutenberg culture is going to be transformed. Watch the video clip:

While visiting Vancouver for the Merging+Media conference, I was invited to appear on “Urban Rush” a lively daytime talk show about media and entertainment. The topic: how traditional media companies must chase their audiences as they migrate to new platforms. The proliferation of new devices and platforms makes this especially difficult for broadcasters who previously viewed the Web as a marketing mechanism to drive audience back to television. That strategy is busted. Here’s the clip:

My topic was “Coercion and Cooperation in the Second Century of Electronic Media.” And my message was that the architecture of a business determines how its creative energy is channeled. Fairfax Media kindly provided me the video, posted here. Continue Reading

At CES 2011, I gave the opening address to a gathering of executives from the storage industry. My talk, titled “Information Transformation”, provided examples and vivid metaphors to illustrate the size and scope of the massive change that is occurring right now. The volume of information generated by our society is so vast that it leaves most people numb: my goal was to reawaken the audience to the possibilities that lie ahead in this new era. Follow the link to to see the video. Continue Reading

This week I was a guest on “This Week In Careers.” Host Lisa Mandell interviewed me about career opportunities of the future. I spoke about several industries that will grow this decade and the steps to take now to prepare for the jobs of the future.

In a wide-ranging interview, we covered several topics, including several lessons that I’ve learned in my 22 year career as a TV director, game designer, creative executive and entrepreneur:

Two essential steps that every young person should take in college to prepare for the future;

How to make yourself irreplaceable at work by becoming an in-house expert;

Three books that will dramatically change your perspective about your next career;

How to evaluate the tradeoff between career advancement versus earning a graduate degree;

The importance of international experience: the benefit of gaining new cultural perspectives;

Four industries that are poised for explosive growth this decade.

This Week In is a bold new startup founded by serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis and a smart young CEO Mark Jeffrey. Online video is growing fast, and this company is doing exciting things. They’ve mastered the art of rapid video production and low cost distribution, which are two evolutionary skillsets necessary to thrive in the online ecosystem. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on ThisWeekIn.com.